Mika Brzezinski on Aging, Career Peaks After 50 and Marriage to Her ‘Morning Joe’ Cohost (EXCLUSIVE)
As the beloved anchor presents Forbes' fourth annual '50 Over 50' list, see what she has to say about the advice she'd give her younger self and more
Mika Brzezinski has been a fixture of many Americans’ morning routines since 2007, when she began cohosting the popular MSNBC news talk show Morning Joe with Joe Scarborough and Willie Geist. Brzezinski and Scarborough, who married in 2018, are beloved for their intelligence and charisma, and for over a decade, the highly-rated show has helped countless viewers make sense of an increasingly chaotic political playing field.
Brzezinski, who grew up in a political family and previously worked as a correspondent for CBS, has been busier than ever in recent years. On top of her packed Morning Joe schedule, the veteran reporter has written a number of books and become a passionate activist for wage equality and women’s empowerment, launching her Know Your Value platform in 2015 and the annual Forbes 50 Over 50 list in 2021.
In honor of her Know Your Value 50 Over 50 luncheon taking place today in New York City and featuring a conversation between TV personality Suze Orman and model/actress/entrepreneur Brooke Shields moderated by Brzezinski, the TV host, journalist and advocate spoke to Woman’s World about the powerful reasons why she set out to highlight the many achievements of women over 50.
Woman’s World: What inspired you to create the Know Your Value community?
Mika Brzezinski: Know Your Value was created a decade ago, when I had struggles with my own value and my own pay compared to my male counterparts. I’m still at the same job and I’m so grateful that this conversation has evolved, because Know Your Value is not just about negotiating and advocating for yourself in terms of your actual pay, it’s also about making sure that people know about the work you’re doing, or the curiosities that you have, or the passions that you want to explore in life and being able to communicate those effectively.
When you need something—beyond money and raises that we all need to know how to advocate for—when you need a different schedule, to go part-time for a while, if you need a big ask, you don’t want it to be the first time you’ve ever asked for something and not understand how to get it. Knowing your value is being able to ask for what you need so you can flourish.
It started with my book [Know Your Value: Women, Money, and Getting What You’re Worth, originally published in 2011] and the incredible response it got, which inspired a partnership with NBC and Comcast. I loved that they weren’t like, “Why did you address this?” but instead, “How can we amplify this? How can we partner with you?” It was amazing. Back then, I didn’t know my value as much and I was at a very different place in my career. If I hadn’t put myself out there, I would have never known what could happen. That’s also a main tenet of Know Your Value, to put yourself out there and try stuff. It’s a psychological challenge to be authentic to who you are in your communications.
We went to cities across the country over the course of a decade and taught women all the tenets of Know Your Value. That ended up being such a success every step of the way that I wrote Earn It, a book focused on younger women in the Know Your Value community. Then, in the past five years, I wrote my book Comeback Careers. I’m 57 and and when I turned 50, my sister in law, Ginny Brzezinski, inspired me to look at the community of women over 50 and she cowrote the book with me.
With the Know Your Value book I wrote well over 10 years ago, I thought I was going to tap into a feeling that a lot of women might have, and ended up uncovering a groundswell of emotion and concern, and discovering that a movement was necessary.
WW: How did the 50 Over 50 list come to be?
MB: With Comeback Careers and 50 Over 50, I discovered another groundswell. I’m not shining a light on a few women who have succeeded. It was like an explosion of talent, success and dreams. The iconic Forbes 30 Under 30 list got a couple hundred submissions when it first came out, and I partnered with Forbes for the 50 Over 50 list because I knew my idea was good, but they do the lists. When we did the first call for submissions, we got over 10,000, and some women were even lying up about their age. We had to say, “Sorry, you didn’t make the deadline, you’re only 49-and-a-half.” An incredible dynamic immediately started where women wanted to be on this illustrious list.
First I thought, “Oh, maybe this will be good for two years,” but now I know I could do this list for the rest of my life and we will never cover the incredible array of women who are out there reaching their highest impact and their wildest dreams over 50. Kamala Harris was on the first 50 Over 50 list four years ago, and now at 60 she’s the Democratic nominee for president.
The very first list had so many submissions that we had to divide it into four categories—impact, investment, innovation and lifestyle—so instead of 50 women we could do 200, as we’ve done every year. Forbes immediately went global with it because it was so resounding. It’s a community that’s here to say to younger women, “We’ve arrived, we’re flourishing and we’ve created for you something we never had.”
When we were in our 20s and early 30s, when we looked into our futures beyond the age of 50, we saw a blank slate. We saw dead air. We saw white space. We saw nothing. Now you can look into the same future for yourself, and see everything, and there are no barriers to what I mean by that. There are women on our lists who are starting families in their 50s. There are women on our lists in their 60s who have young children. There are women on our lists who are in their 50s, 60s and 70s and making money they never could’ve dreamed of. We have a 94-year-old actress on our list. These women are beacons for younger women as to what their future not just can look like, but will look like, because science is also catching up and supporting our healthcare so that we live longer and healthier lives.
WW: Given your intense schedule with Morning Joe and all your other projects, how do you fight stress and unwind?
MB: Right at this time, I’m not able to fight the stress, and I’m not taking time to unwind, and that’s just the truth. Every woman, at some point in their lives, is going to have a hard time. That’s the bottom line. There’s no balance right now. I’m working 24/7. Sorry. Actually, I take back my apology since one of the Know Your Value rules is to never apologize!
WW: What is your morning routine like?
MB: We’re working into the night reading and trying to follow everything throughout the day, and of course I’m working on Know Your Value. I hoist myself out of bed at 4 a.m. and about three-quarters of the time I’m doing my hair and makeup on my own. It doesn’t look as good as if a professional does it, but it’s an important time and I just don’t think it matters. It’s the art of what’s possible right now. I’m listening to the news, and then we do a call and then we’re on TV, and it’s 6 a.m. every morning, for four hours straight.
WW: Have you picked up any relationship tips from working so closely with your husband?
MB: Both of us practice a lot of patience and acceptance, and whether you’re together 24/7 or not, that’s key. Otherwise I’m incredibly blessed and lucky. It’s very hard, and I talk to young women about this, but we have so many opportunities, so please don’t forget the most important one in your life. It can be to have a career and be successful and support your family and yourself. It’s important to do that. But if your dreams are to have a family—and you don’t have to have those dreams—know that it’s okay to be spending a lot of time and effort on a good connection. If this is something that you want, it can be hard to find, but it can happen and you have much more time than you think. And remember to take love seriously.
WW: What’s the most rewarding part of working on Morning Joe?
MB: My favorite part of the job is working with this incredible team. I love all of our producers, and the people who I work closest with on a daily basis are not only the best in the business, but I’m personally comfortable with and grateful for them. I love the people who I work with very much, and some of us have been together for 18 years. We’re long-term colleagues, and Morning Joe is a family. Everyone loves being a part of it. I think that’s what makes our connection on the air so special. The conversation, as tough as it can be, is based on real care for our viewers, for the truth and for each other.
WW: With all your advocacy work around aging, what advice would you give your younger self?
MB: You have a long runway. It’s the message of 50 Over 50 and Know Your Value. There’s no longer white space in your future after the age of 40 and 50. There’s no longer a sense of, “Oh, I’m going to lose my looks and be in a different category.” Look at Kamala Harris and tell me that 60 isn’t the new 40. Forget the new 50. 60 is the new 40, baby! I don’t want to make this about looks, because she brings so much to the table, and there are so many things I want women to bring to the table, but I know it’s something on our minds, because other people place an emphasis on that, and I want to say that in every way, age is becoming a massive asset.
After the age of 50, you have the wisdom, you have the looks, you have the abilities, you have the communication skills—and you know what you don’t have? I can’t say it, but it’s like when someone says they have zero “you-know-whats” left. You don’t have any of those left. You don’t have inhibitions. You don’t have concerns about what people will think of you. You just don’t. It’s honestly like the sun coming up in your life, and you realize what matters. Everything is crystal clear and everything that you’ve done up until this moment starts taking on a new sense of confidence and capability.
Conversation
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